HOUSE PASSES COMMON-SENSE BUDGET
Americans for Prosperity State Director Peggy Venable released the following statement today regarding the passage of the Texas Budget (HB 1):
"Tonight, the Texas budget passed the Senate and the House. Texas legislators had the courage to do right by taxpayers and resisted the lobbying by special interests to spend more money than the available revenue.
"This is a fiscally responsible budget.
“In 2003, the state cut its budget and big-government advocates predicted gloom and doom. But Texas has prospered.
“Texas is number one in job creation and business relocation thanks to the favorable economic policies Texas leaders have pursued and thanks to the big-government policies they have rejected.
“Americans for Prosperity created the Red Apple Project to point out how public school districts currently have one non-teacher for every teacher and spends less than half the taxpayers’ education dollars on instruction. Each school district is listed on the website www.RedAppleProject.com and this has helped provide information on how education spending could be cut without cutting teachers or instruction. Legislators do not determine how the education dollars are used – that is the responsibility of the local school boards and the superintendents.
“The legislature provided most of the budget funds for education, totaling almost $54 billion for the 4.5 million students in K-12. They provided almost $75.6 bill for education including higher education. Our members know there fat exists in those budgets, and this spending is more than adequate to do their job.
“Despite heavy lobbying by special interests, legislators voted to spend no more than the projected state revenue.
“Big-government advocates pushed for spending the rainy day funds, had advocated for raiding the permanent school funds, pushing gambling and advocated for raising taxes.
“Most states are facing budget shortfalls. This is not the time to raise taxes or to spend more than the state brings in.
“The histrionics we will be reading about following session need to be taken into perspective. The sky is not falling, and Texas will continue to prosper with this common-sense budget and Taxpayers pocketbooks were protected by this fiscally conservative budget.”
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